Fuse plate structure



April 26, 1949" E. J. FIX ET AL FUSE PLATE STRUCTURE Filed Sept. 20, 1941 W m ,w .2 FE d n 2 1 as mm 1&5 fi in n BED Patented Apr. 26, 1949 FUSE PLATE STRUCTURE Eugene J. Fix and Benjamin B. Patton, Philadelphia, Pa.

Application September 20, 1941, Serial No. 411,626

1 Claim.

(Granted under the act of amended April 30, 1928;

The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes, without the payment to us of any royalty thereon.

This invention relates to a laminated composite plate support for the clockwork train of a mechanical time fuse and constitutes a continuation in part of our co-pending application, Serial No. 249,260, filed Jan. 4, 1939, now abandoned.

It is a principal object of the invention to pro duce a mechanical fuse having individual plate units of the conventional laminated plate support for the clockwork train formed of a composite structure for the purpose of facilitating mass production thereof.

In view of the tremendous forces of set-back arising in firin a shell of such caliber as would be provided with a mechanical time fuse it has heretofore been the practice in the art to make the plate units of a laminated clockwork train support for a mechanical time fuse of the type shown in U. S. Patent No. 1,927,746 of as great thickness as was consistent with an arrangement of the plates that could be designed to receive and support the gears, pinions, arbors and other essential elements of the clockwork train and fuse. The purpose of course in forming the individual plates of the support of as great thickness as possible was to reduce the total number of plates in the support to an absolute minimum whereby the possibility of the plates being squeezed together in more intimate contact under the stress of firing to an extent sufficient to bind or jam the elements of the clockwork train would also be reduced to a minimum. A clockwork train support for a fuse formed in this conventional manner functions satisfactorily in service. However, difficulties are presented in fabrication since the plates are of such thickness and the number of openings formed therein to provide bearings and encase the elements of the clockwork train are so numerous and disposed on such closely spaced centers as to prohibit pierce punching of the individual plates because of the high breakage of the pierce punches or altogether preclude a pierce punching operation because of the close spacing of the openings, it being found that in plates of conventional thickness an opening cannot be placed closer than 35% of the diameter of the punch to the edge of or another opening in such conventional plate without destroying the web between said opening and edge of the plate or adjacent opening as the case might be. Further, inasmuch as pierce punching on plates of conventional thickness is precluded as a practical March 3, 1883, as 370 0. G. 757) operation the form of the openings to provide bearings for the arbors, supports for the pinions and gears, and relieved areas for receiving other elements or" the clockwork train require the several operations of drilling, counterboring, routing and milling and the drilling cannot be accomplished on one plate in one operation by gang drills as the centers of the openings preclude spacing the drills of a gang drill on such closely spaced centers; consequently, errors creep in the spacing of openings as the plate is passed from drill station to drill station due to the fact that the work (plate) is not secured in the same relative position at each drill station. This results in non-identical performance of the fuses because of the variation in friction in the clockwork trains thereof arising from the variable bearing relations of the arbors, etc., to their bearing openings in the plates disposed on said erroneous spacing of centers.

Another object of this invention is to provide a composite plate adapted to be formed into a laminated fuse clockwork train of the conventional type which will obviate all of the aforesaid difficulties and which may be fabricated by the usual blanking operation, and a die punching and shaving operation.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a plate so compositely formed that each component thereof may have the openings therein formed by a single die punching operation.

The specific nature of the invention as well as other objects and advantages thereof will clearly appear from a description of a preferred embodiment as shown in the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is an elevational view of a conventional fuse clockwork train support;

Fig. 2 is an elevational view of a fuse clockwork train support fabricated in accordance with this invention;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of a composite plate comprised of the complemental plate components of Figs. 4 and 5;

Fig. 4 is a plan view of one of the plate components of the composite plate shown in Fig. 3

Fig. 5 is a plan view of a plate component complemental to component shown in Fig. 4 utilized in fabricating the composite plate of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken upon the section line 66 of Fig. 3, and

Fig. 7 is a sectional view taken upon the section line 1'l of Fig. 3.

Referring now to the drawings and more especially to Fig. 2 there is shown a clockwork train support for a mechanical fuse in accordance with this invention comprised of laminated composite plates In, H, l2, I3 and the usual filler and top plates I4, l5, and IE which for purposes of convenience may be compared with the corresponding plates l ll, H, |'Z',l 3', l4',:' |5 -and i6' of a conventional clockivorkztrain support as sl'iownin Fig. 1.

By arranging the plates I, ll, l2, and I3 as composite structures as shown in Fig. 2.such plate members of the conventional clockwork support for a mechanical fuse as havehel'etofore precluded drilling or punching of the-necessary gear, pinion, arbor and other Openings for elements of the clockwork train and'fuse inone operational step have been so arranged thatt'the components of the corresponding composite plates H], II, I2, and I3 of our'inventiomma'y be pierce punched in a single operation'and thereafter assembled into composite plates having openings of various depths, configurations-and arranged in different-patterns to serveas bearings for pinions, gears, arbors'a-ndclearancesfor other elements of the clockwork-train and fuse, thereby greatly facilitating production by eliminating the several steps of clrilling, 'counterboring, milling androuting to-'- accomplish the same end in the conventional comparatively thick unitary plates.

-=Asa n illustration of 'how'the composite plates occurinvention-areformed reference is made to the"composite plate'shown in Fig. 3 which may be considered as plate I I shown in Fig' 2 and which will serve to illustrate the principles involved in the fabrication of any of the'othercomposite plates l 8, l 2-' or -l 3 ofour invention. "The composite plate I II- is comprisedof a'plurality of generally circular complemental' component members,"-which in' the specific instance ofcomposite plate II is twocomponents indicated at A and B in Figs. 4 and 4, respectively, although it w ill'be understood that the number"of---components-'in any-particularcomposite plate will varywith the number and disposition of the "openings in that plate.

' The' desire'd pattern or arrangement of openin'gs' in composite plate" I I is clearly shown in Fig. 3 and the individual openings are indicated'at 11, 13.19, 2il2l," 22, 23, $1, 25, 26.11, 28, 29, 30, 3| and- 82. "As these openings are 'so' closely spaced asto preclude drilling-of the plate in oneoperation and as a unitary plate of the same thicknesses the composite plate i I,- that is plate H of- Fig." l,-is too thick to allow pierce punching since certain-of the-openings are closer than 35% of the diameter or the punch to the edge'of theplate or another opening we have selected tWo component-members"A and'Bof such thicknesses as to be adapted to piercepunchi ngand'collective'ly of" the same thicknessas plate-ll. The coinponent members A arid" B'-are''then pierce punched in one operation with the necessary gear,pinion -and-arbor'bearing openings as well as openingsand peripheral 'recesses or notches collectively referred to as openings,"t0' receive other elements of the clockwork train and'f-use so that when shavedandassembled in superimposed relation the individual openings of the two component members A and B will be complementary in forming the final desired arrangement or pattern of openings Il-32 in the composite plate II. The arrangement or pattern of openings isaccomplished inthe' case' of composite plate ll by' pierce punch-ing the openings, apertures, or peripheral recesses l1, l8, l9, 2|, 22, 3 23', 24', 25', 21', 28', 29, SI and 32' in com- -ponentmember A and openings ll, I8", l9", "2I7I- 22I! 2 3II, 24/" 25!! 21 2 9" 30!! 3', 1322, 20 and 26 in component member B after iwhich the component members A and B are assembled in superimposed contacting relation with the "openings llll", l8'l8", |9--l9", 2l -2l, 2222", 23'23", 24'24", 25-2-5", 2l'-2l, 2828, 29-29", 3030", 3l'3l" an'd"32 -32 disposed in complementary relation toform'the'openings ll, 18, I9, 2|, 22, 23, 24, 25, 21, 28, 29, 30, 3| and 32 of the composite plate. The openings 2lly2fi of component member 'B have no complementary counterparts in component member Band it will of course be understood that a greater or less numberof openings'similar' to the openings- 20, '25 may be formed in the complementary component members of the other composite plates ill. iz-and IS.

"The component members of the composite plates are retained in assembled relation bydowel pins or in any other suitable manner,"such-as by threaded fasteners which *extend through all the plates of the support as is well known in the'art.

The plates It; is and I6 of the fuse areeither formed==of different metalthan 'the metal" of the composite plates or have so fewan'd widely spaced openings that theycan be'either pierce pun'ched'or drilled-in one operation.

l-laying now described our invention in accordance with a present preferred-embodimentwe 40 claim:

"'In' a mechanical time fuse, -a clock-trainsupport having openings for the reception of clockwork fuse components, in "combination, a plurality' er composite plates each componentpart ofeach'composite plate being of athickness that permits pierce punching of a pattern of openings whichare closer than 35% of the-diameter of a punch to the edge'of the nearest opening; whereby each component part'of each composite plate may be -prepunchedin one operative" step," and means for retaining the componentmembers'of eachcomposite plate in superimposed contacting-relation with the patterns or the openings arranged in complementary relation.

* EUGENE J. FIX. BENJAMIN B. PATTON.

EEFERENGES CITED T lIhe following references are of. record vin the file-of .thispatent:

' UNITED' STATES PATENTS Number 7 Name IDate Re.- 16,596 .Colomb Apr.v 19, 1927 293,018 Hart -JFebi 5; 1884 1,927,746 Junghans Sept.l 19,11933 

